306 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
hawks do not provide nesting material and the box fitted their needs as 
well. They reared a family of four successfully. The flickers soon 
took up their abode in another of the boxes near at hand where they 
reared their family. Flickers have occupied these boxes and reared 
their families each year since so that there is no longer any question 
that the boxes are readily received and that the acceptance was not a 
mere chance not likely to be repeated. In addition to the flickers the 
sparrow hawks and redheaded woodpeckers already mentioned have also 
reared their families with equal success, though not so frequently. 
Our home is situated in a grove of native trees where ideal conditions 
exist for nesting places for these birds and they have not occupied the 
boxes for lack of suitable natural nesting places but because the boxes 
supplied their requirements equally well. "While the boxes have been 
in use other families have occupied cavities in the trees in the usual 
manner. Old lumber has been used in every case to give the natural 
appearance as much as possible. As yet I have not tried the experiment 
of painted houses for these birds, but I doubt very much whether such 
boxes would be occupied. About sixteen feet from the ground seems to 
be the most favored height. Boxes a few feet lower have not been occu- 
pied. One box on a cedar pole at the edge of the grove has furnished 
a home for three successive families, while another similar one a few 
rods from the grove but near an apple tree has never been occupied. 
Boxes nailed well up to the side of a tree, or at the top of a broken tree 
trunk have been readily used. The most popular box is one about six 
inches square and two feet deep with six inches of cork in the bottom. 
The cavity between the hole and tbe cork is a little over twelve inches. 
The entrance hole is about four inches below the top of the box. 
It is apparent that woodpeckers 7 requirements as to nesting sites are 
not difficult to meet. The cork or chips to supply the nest is the most 
essential thing and it remains to be seen whether they will not occupy 
almost any kind of box supplying this requirement. 
